I am the Hogwarts Sorting Hat...
by Kazaera
Summary: The Sorting Hat reflects on its failures after Sorting Harry.
1. Default Chapter

A/N: My apologies if you read this fic before I re-uploaded it. FF.net was going crazy   
and dropped every single line break. It wasn't nice, and I have to re-upload about ten   
different fics now.  
/For I am the Hogwarts Sorting Hat, and I can cap them all…/  
/I've never yet been wrong…/  
Ha. How I wish that was true. Advertising, that's all it is.  
I /am/ very good, the best. I pride myself on that. And some people are very easy to   
Sort – most Malfoys, for example! But, I've made mistakes. Most of those were small   
mistakes, people who seemed to fit in two Houses equally. It wouldn't have changed   
anything if I'd put Catherine Vance into Ravenclaw – where she should've gone –   
instead of Hufflepuff. I've made two big mistakes, though. Both in this century.  
The first was Tom Riddle. Very cunning and sneaky. Not ambitious, but with many   
Muggle-raised students that comes later – it did with him, oh yes. And with that   
bloodline – eminently suited for Slytherin. He begged, though. Pleaded with me, not   
to put him into Slytherin. He'd heard bad things about the House. If only I'd looked a   
bit closer, if only I hadn't thought /Salazar's Heir, he has to be in Slytherin,/ I   
would've seen a great intelligence – he was brilliant, really – and a thirst for   
knowledge. He could've been a good Ravenclaw. I only realized this later, when it   
was too late. And now Tom Marvolo Riddle terrorizes the whole wizarding   
community as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and thousands live in fear – all because   
of me, and my mistake.  
My second mistake came some decades later. Peter Pettigrew. He was very insecure,   
nervous. Not brave, but bravery often comes later. Very few eleven-year-olds are   
obviously brave. I wanted to put him into Hufflepuff… I put all of the nervous,   
insecure, self-hating ones into Hufflepuff. They blossom there, it's the perfect House   
for the shy, the easily frightened. They'd get trampled on or pushed into the   
background in any of the other Houses. Peter begged to go into Gryffindor. He'd   
made friends on the train ride – James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin. Three true   
Gryffindors… well, I would've normally put Remus into Ravenclaw. But you have to   
have a lot of bravery to survive as a werewolf. Godric would've been proud of him.  
I still would've put him into Hufflepuff. But then I remembered what had happened   
the /last/ time I hadn't listened to a student. I didn't want to create a second Tom   
Riddle. So I gave in, and put him with his friends. And you know what came of that –   
actually, you don't. No one except for Sirius Black does. And me, of course… but   
who listens to a raggedy old hat? He went over to You-Know-Who, betraying his   
friends. He killed James and Lily Potter, framed Sirius and got him put into Azkaban.   
And all because of me. If only I'd put him into Hufflepuff.  
And now I have a third one on my hands. Neville Longbottom, you'll say. No. Neville   
may be very much like Peter superficially – nervous, shy, insecure and all that – but   
he has a bit of backbone and a streak of honor and bravery Peter never had. No, I   
don't fear Neville Longbottom's going over to You-Know-Who.  
Harry Potter. I would've put him into Slytherin. He has many Slytherin qualities –   
he's quite cunning, has a strong thirst to prove himself, resourceful… much like Tom   
Riddle, actually. He has Gryffindor qualities, as well, of course. Brave, determined,   
although also insecure – dear me, I do get a lot of those, don't I? He's no Hufflepuff,   
though. But, a Parselmouth, and all those Slytherin attributes – I was going to put him   
into Slytherin. Then he asked to go into Gryffindor.  
I was torn. Slytherin, or Gryffindor? Would he become another Tom Riddle if I put   
him into Slytherin? Or another Peter Pettigrew, if I put him into Gryffindor? Finally, I   
decided to listen to him. Another traitor is better than another Dark Lord. So, Harry   
Potter is in Gryffindor. We'll see how he turns out… whether I can smile   
(metaphorically speaking), and confidently sing my Sorting songs, or whether I can   
mark him as my third great failure in this century. 


	2. Disclaimer

All right, I did WAY too much posting on FictionAlley. With its automatic disclaimer.*Sigh* Why do I get the feeling this site does not like me? Having to edit every fic you post twice. Bad enough when the fics aren't seven in number. Happy joy. This is number five and I'm already going insane. Disclaimer (borrowing from FA): This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. 


End file.
